Routine United States Mining Seismicity

The catalog, "Routine Mining Seismicity in the United States",
provides listings of routine explosions and planned roof collapses
at mines and quarries in the United States. For the period May 1997
through March 2000 the catalog was called "Probable Mining
Explosions in the United States".

GOAL AND SCOPE OF THE CATALOG
explains the seismological context in which
the routine explosions and collapses are recorded and their
locations calculated: we discuss uncertainties in the magnitudes of
the cataloged seismic events and variations in the completeness of
the catalog.

EVIDENCE USED IN IDENTIFYING ROUTINE MINING SEISMICITY explains the
evidence that is used to identify routine explosions or planned
collapses, and we note that in some areas a few natural earthquakes
or unplanned rockbursts may be listed in the catalogs of routine
mining seismicity.

Funds for the development of this catalog were
provided by the Verification and Compliance Division of the United
States Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, the Defense Threat
Reduction Agency of the U.S. Department of Defense, and the
U.S. Department of State.

For October - November, catalogs list principally events
for which computed magnitudes are 2.0 or higher and for which stable
calculations of the epicenters can be achieved in several
computation attempts.

From August, to June, 1999, and from October, 1999, through
September, 2002, mining associated seismic events having magnitude
(ML, USGS) 2.5 or greater in the western U.S., or having magnitude
(mbLg, USGS) 3.0 or greater in the eastern U.S., are listed if they
are automatically detected and located by the USGS/NEIC near-real
time system and if, after examination of the data by the analyst, a
stable epicenter can be computed. In addition, smaller events are
catalogued if, (1), they provide information on the characteristics
of a region's mine-associated seismicity that cannot be obtained
with the larger explosions or, (2), their epicenters have been
reliably determined in the course of searching for larger events.
For the period July -- September, 1999 and for the period beginning
October 2002, we list only suspected explosions that have been
reported in the Reviewed Event Bulletin (REB) of the Prototype
International Data Center (PIDC) or the International Data Center
(IDC) of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Organization.

More data on events listed in
catalogs of "Routine Mining Seismicity in the United
States"

Additional data are available by anonymous ftp
(ftp://hazards.cr.usgs.gov/mineblast/). Bulletins that contain
phase arrival-times used to compute mine-event epicenters have the
form "mchedrYYMMex.dat". A catalog of the routine mining seismicity
in GSE2.0 format is given as "mineevents.gct". These additional data
are typically made available within one and two months of the date
of the event.

Mining-induced seismicity listed in the
"Preliminary Determination of Epicenters" publications of the
USGS/NEIC

Unusually large mining-induced events that are listed in regular
earthquake catalogs of the USGS/NEIC are not listed in the catalogs
of "Routine Mining Seismicity in the United States."